Flyers

Dave Scott on Hiring Danny Briere: “We Were Determined to Make Sure He Stayed”

By Anthony SanFilippo

Published: Feb 8th, 2022 · 3:53 PM EST

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The Flyers officially named Danny Briere a Special Assistant to the General Manager on Tuesday, a report we had exclusively on Saturday. 

(If my name were Kyle Scott, this following sentence would have said, “I don’t know why you would read ay other site.”)

According to the release, Briere will be involved in all aspects of the club’s hockey operations, including scouting and player development. It’s a first-of-it’s kind (for the Flyers anyway) Swiss Army knife managerial position, that seems, at first glance, to be a pretty powerful one.

Considering how close Briere came to being named GM of the Montreal Canadiens last month, the Flyers not only had to promote him, but get creative with what the job would entail, giving Briere a lot of the same responsibilities of being a GM without actually having that title and also without stepping on the toes of assistant GMs Brent Flahr and Barry Hanrahan.

It was a delicate move, but one both Flyers Governor Dave Scott and GM Chuck Fletcher put together with the idea of having it be a boon for hockey operations.

In a statement given exclusively to Crossing Broad, Scott indicated how imperative it was to keep Briere in the organization and not let him go to another organization:

“I have really enjoyed getting to know Danny and I’m continually impressed by his natural leadership, his eagerness to continue learning and growing, and the way he represents our organization. He is a Philadelphia Flyer through and through, and we want him here in Philly.

“t’s no secret that Danny is well-respected throughout the league and we were determined to make sure he stayed with us in the Orange and Black.”

Many believe that the Flyers are grooming their next GM once Fletcher’s time with the organization concludes. Fletcher’s contract expires at the end of the 2022-23 season, and will have to complete a fast turn-around of the team to be re-signed beyond that.

Having Briere as almost a GM-in-waiting with a year-and-a-half of front office experience at that time would be a nice fallback option for Scott. And if Fletcher succeeds, and earn a new deal, Briere can still contribute as basically Fletcher’s right-hand man and be a big part of the team’s turnaround, building his own resume in the process. It’d be a win/win/win situation for Scott, Fletcher and Briere.

“I’m very happy to add Danny to our hockey operations team in a full-time role,” Fletcher said in a statement. “His insight and experience from 25 years in professional hockey, as well as first-hand knowledge o the Philadelphia Flyers is a valuable asset for our organization, and I look forward to working closely with him on a day-to-day basis.”

However, Fletcher told me today that despite bringing Danny along in the organization for close to two years now, that conversations definitely ramped up in the past few months, which would coincide with when Briere’s name was first mentioned with Montreal.

“Danny has been getting progressively more involved with us the past 24 months,” Fletcher said. “We have had a few conversations the past few months about the next steps and essentially this is the best time for him to transition from his duties with Maine into a full-time role with us.”

In his team-issued statement, Briere expressed excitement for his new role in his adopted home city, thanked Fletcher and Scott for their confidence in him, and talked about making the team a success again.

I spoke with him soon after it was learned that he was a finalist for the job in Montreal last month, and he expressed appreciation to the Canadiens, but also a little surprise that he got that close to getting the gig.

We talked about getting more experience to push him across that line and he agreed that he would certainly pursue that, whether it be in Philadelphia or elsewhere.

But the reality is, he wanted it to be here.

Briere has been basically a rink rat in the sense that he has offered to do anything and everything for the Flyers – whether it was skating with injured players, or filling in as an assistant coach for the Phantoms when the actual coaches were down with COVID-19 – Briere wanted to show how committed he was to the Flyers organization, not just Comcast-Spectacor, for whom he was working when he was running the Maine Mariners of the ECHL.

Fletcher asked him to do some player development stuff earlier this year, and Briere said he spent time with a lot of the Flyers young prospects – specifically Morgan Frost and Bobby Brink, two players who many scouts felt would be Briere-type players.

(For what it’s worth, Briere was really high on Brink when we spoke. Brink is in the middle of an excellent junior year season at University of Denver, where he has 41 points in just 26 games and is a plus-23. I know a lot of people questioned why the Flyers chose Cam York in the first round of the 2019 draft instead of Cole Caufield, who went one pick later to Montreal. The Flyers felt there wasn’t another puck-moving defenseman as good as York at that point in the draft, and felt they could get Brink, who would have more time to develop in the NCAA instead of Caufield and fill two needs instead of just one. Caufield made it to the NHL first – and for a hot second was a instant success in the playoffs last season, but, in his first full year in the NHL, Caulfield has struggled, with just 13 points in 39 games. Time will tell ultimately if the Flyers made the right call, but if Briere is right that we should be excited about Brink – and the Flyers continue to deploy Briere to be a mentor to him – it could turn out to be a boon for the Flyers.)

Briere has impressed with everything he has done for the organization this season, and although it’s been a terrible year on-ice, he could be an integral part of rebuilding this franchise, and it was important to get him locked up now.

Fletcher. Briere. Flahr. Hanrahan. Alyn McCauley (new Director of Player Personnel). Tom Minton (new Director of Hockey Operations). Four veteran advisors. A veteran scouting staff. An ever-growing analytics department. There’s no doubt Dave Scott and Comcast-Spectacor have invested in the hockey operations department, especially in the last few weeks.

That’s great for the organization but it also means the spotlight will shine on this group ever more harshly than it has before if it doesn’t bring around the much-needed change to the product on the ice.